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Help /data/media

Boowho

Member
Just flashed a new (current) version of TWRP on my device.

Booted into TWRP and went to advanced/terminal.

Tried to CD into /data/media (as I've done for years) in order to do a tar backup.

Surprise There in no media folder (even empty) in my data directory.

NE1 know WTH is going on here??

Thanks
 
Just flashed a new (current) version of TWRP on my device.

Booted into TWRP and went to advanced/terminal.

Tried to CD into /data/media (as I've done for years) in order to do a tar backup.

Surprise There in no media folder (even empty) in my data directory.

NE1 know WTH is going on here??

Thanks
not sure been a while since i used twrp.

maybe try an older version????
 
LG V20 US996


Plus dropping back to an earlier version of TWRP (the same one I'd been using for several years) did not help. Also when I boot recovery, it asks for a password which it never did before. I think it's has something to do with encryption
 
OK, I've no experience with that device, but asked in the hope that someone who does might be able to tell you what is normal for it.

But I guess the other question I should have asked is whether this is the first time you had looked for that directory on this device - I'd sort of read it as "this phone seems different", but you may be saying "it was there before I flashed this TWRP", in which case it's a different question. Then the question is whether it's really not there, or whether TWRP isn't showing it.

If it had been there previously on this device, the first question is whether you had flashed anything else recently (e.g. a new ROM)? I can't see why flashing TWRP alone should change /data/media (in fact if you flashed it using fastboot it would flash to the /recovery partition rather than /data, so as long as the TWRP was built for the correct phone it should not affect /data at all - and if it was the wrong TWRP I'd expect more dramatic problems than /data/media not being visible!).

One possible cross-check: can you see the directory using ADB (something like "adb shell ls /data/media" should do it), or using a terminal emulator or root-capable file browser from inside Android? Basically asking whether you can see the directory via some other method, in which case TWRP is the problem - if not that would suggest that the directory is really gone. I am assuming that you have root access here (an assumption because it's possible to install TWRP but not root, though not many people do).
 
OK, I've no experience with that device, but asked in the hope that someone who does might be able to tell you what is normal for it.

But I guess the other question I should have asked is whether this is the first time you had looked for that directory on this device - I'd sort of read it as "this phone seems different", but you may be saying "it was there before I flashed this TWRP", in which case it's a different question. Then the question is whether it's really not there, or whether TWRP isn't showing it.

If it had been there previously on this device, the first question is whether you had flashed anything else recently (e.g. a new ROM)? I can't see why flashing TWRP alone should change /data/media (in fact if you flashed it using fastboot it would flash to the /recovery partition rather than /data, so as long as the TWRP was built for the correct phone it should not affect /data at all - and if it was the wrong TWRP I'd expect more dramatic problems than /data/media not being visible!).

One possible cross-check: can you see the directory using ADB (something like "adb shell ls /data/media" should do it), or using a terminal emulator or root-capable file browser from inside Android? Basically asking whether you can see the directory via some other method, in which case TWRP is the problem - if not that would suggest that the directory is really gone. I am assuming that you have root access here (an assumption because it's possible to install TWRP but not root, though not many people do).

Thank you ever so much. New phone but original mother board. The new phone was not a US996, but after swapping the mother board it became one. I DO have root access via Magisk and yes I can see data/media in a root file explorer.

And yes I have flashed a downgrade from oreo to nougat because I thought oreo could not be rooted on this phone. Then I discovered that oreo is rootable so I flashed it back to oreo. Both flashes completely STOCK images right of LG's website. And I flashed them BEFORE I flashed TWRP and MAGISK. and again I believe it could be something to do with the password/encryption thingy I mentioned it my previous message.

Thanks so much for your efforts to help me find a solution. The reason I'm so concerned about it is that for YEARS I've used tar to backup the data media directory (from within twrp). I found it a much better solution than Titanium Backup and others like it..
 
I don't know why TWRP might be playing up here, but wonder whether adb pull could just be used to copy the directory and its contents to a computer (you can then tar it if you want)?
 
I don't know why TWRP might be playing up here, but wonder whether adb pull could just be used to copy the directory and its contents to a computer (you can then tar it if you want)?

Tryed an ADB pull. Threw a security error and wouldn't let me.

I think the attached link to XDA forums has the answer nailed exactly. I'm going to try this when I have a little free time available.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/fixed-how-to-remove-data-encryption-in-twrp.3757595
 
The long nightmare is over. I'll bet I reflashed this phone back from a near brick condition at least 25 times in the last 4-5 days.

Problem turned out to be the newest version of Magisk. Switched to SuperSU and BANG done in one flash.

I had previously used Magisk version 7 but that version is no longer available. In 2017, Magisk 7 worked just fine on this phone.

As you probably read earlier, the phone always boot looped after flashing Magisk (currrent version).

So when I flashed SuperSU it stated that the phone would take quite to boot first normally, after the SuperSU flash.

Now the "kicker"........ It also said that the PHONE MAY BOOT LOOP SEVERAL TIMES, but just wait a bit and it would soon

come out of the boot loop all by itself. Which it did!!!! I should be happy, but I'm really pissed that I frittered away MANY HOURS

On this "project".
 
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